Simple Moments
by WL Chastain
Summary: Brief moments between Bella's hospital stay and the Prom in the first book.


**Simple Moments by WL Chastain**

******Twilight and it's characters not owned by me. But I get to play with them!**

** I often wondered about the time between Bella's 2nd day **awake** in the hospital until the day before Prom in the first book, Twilight.

Chapter One

As Bella laid in the hospital bed, trying to ignore the broken leg, cracked ribs, and the other injuries given to her by James, she wondered over the past two months of her life. When she was coming to live with her Dad in Forks, Washington, all she had on her mind at the time was "just get through until I graduate. Just get through until I graduate."

Now, she not only had her injuries to consider and the healing of said injuries to deal with but the repair job needed with her Dad and the love for a vampire named Edward to contend with. And here she thought she was average and would just coast through life until she died with no exciting dramas!

"Bella, the physical therapist will be here in two hours", Susan, the day floor nurse peeked in and smiled at her. "I promise, this first visit will be short and hopefully painless." She stopped and looked around the room. "Where is your ever present boyfriend, Edward?"

Bella rolled her eyes and waved a hand at the room. "He saw a bare spot right over there and decided that another stuffed animal was needed. What am I going to do with all these flowers, plants and toys?"

Susan chuckled and stepped further into the room, holding the door open. "Well, if you really want to get rid of these, the day you leave, we'll take everything you don't want and pass them out amongst the patients who don't get visitors."

Bella smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah, that'd be nice. Anyway, can you can convince Edward NOT to buy anymore stuff?"

At that, Edward came into the room with a giant monkey holding a banana. "Oh, I don't think so, sweetie. I'm a nurse, not a miracle worker." And she closed the door behind her as she left.

"What was that all about?" Edward frowned at the door. "You don't want these things?"

"Correct," Bella played with the blanket on her bed. "Edward, a plant and the portable dvd player was really all I needed or wanted. There's enough stuff in here to supply a toy store at the mall! Where am I going to put all this? HOW am I going to get this stuff home? So Susan mentioned the patients here that don't get visitors and I said I'd give this stuff to her the day I leave."

Edward looked down at the three foot high monkey in his hands. "Am I going overboard again? You could've told me sooner." He looked back up with a smile and tossed the monkey at her. "Well, okay, this is the last, I promise."

The monkey landed on the bed at her feet, staring at her with a dopey smile. She couldn't help but smile at Edward over his enjoyment of supplying her with distractions while in the hospital. Ever since she woke up that first time, they kept their conversation light and future free. She never knew Edward had a horror of seventies music and clothes until they were watching the movie, "Saturday Night Fever". And she also learned that Edward cheats at Scrabble.

"You can't add an "e" at the end of stomach! " Bella removed the offending tile and tossed it at Edward. "There's no "e" in stomach!"

"Is too! " Edward put the tile back and glared at Bella. "It's the proper spelling of that word!"

"Ohh please!" Bella snorted and tossed the tile at Edward again. "No "e"! You just want that triple word score! It's not going to happen!"

"Bella, do I have to go get a dictionary? Because I will, you know!" Edward placed the tile a little forcibly back on the board and held his finger on top of the tile to keep Bella from snatching it. "You're just trying to keep me from winning this game because I wouldn't let you use "urp" as a word!"

"Urp is too a word!" Bella glared at Edward. "But I decided in the fairness of the game, to not put a word down that YOU didn't know. But I can see that misspelling a word is OKAY!" Bella leaned back against her pillows and folded her arms under her chest.

"Bella, I have never lost a game of Scrabble", Edward smiled gently. "It's because I know a lot of words and their correct spelling. Not because I misspell them or make up words that sound like bodily functions."

"I'm supposed to **let you** win because you **may have **a larger vocabulary than me?!"

"No, I'm going to win because I **do** have a larger vocabulary than you!", Edward smirked. "Comes from **decades** of reading and studying."

"After all that and you still can't properly spell "stomach", Bella shook her head slowly and shifted on the bed, wincing.

"Hmmmm, are you pulling the "I'm injured and hurting" card on me?" Edward glared at her. "Because if you are, then I have no choice but to end this game now and call the nurse to check the pain medication drip." He stood up and made to walk towards the door.

"You're bluffing," Bella smirked back and look away, wincing again as she shifted on the bed. "Such underhanded tactics are not worthy of an opponent of mine."

Edward stopped in mid stride turned on his heel and faced his pouting love.

"I see, the battle lines have been drawn and neither of us are willing to concede to the other," Edward rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "We are at an impasse then?"

"I suppose so," Bella picked at the little fabric furls on the blanket over her. "Unless you decide to surrender to a superior warrior."

"Show me one and I will", Edward's eyes twinkled as he smiled.

Bella quickly looked into Edward's eyes, hers shooting sparks of anger while his just glowed with merriment. "Ohhh you're sooooo funny!" Bella snorted.

_**One Week Later-First Day Back In Forks**_

"Dad! I think Alice would be better for me", Bella blushed so deeply Charlie could see red on her scalp. "Bad enough I'm needing help, but not from you, please!"

"Bells, I've seen you naked before!" Charlie retorted as he stood in the bathroom doorway.

"When I was wearing diapers!" Bella shrieked. "Dad, please, it's only for a little while! Alice doesn't mind, do you, Alice?"

"No, not at all!", Alice high pitched voice rang out from Bella's room where she was rummaging in the closet. "Bella, you have no clothes! How can you live on just ten shirts and ten pants?! You definitely **need** me!"

Charlie chuckled over Alice's dismay at Bella's lack of fashion sense and shook his head in agreement at Bella. "Fine, she can stay and help. But she stays **OUT** of **MY** closets! You hear me Alice?"

"Yes Charlie, I hear you! " Alice shouted back. "If you want to walk around town looking ten years out of date, that's your prerogative. And Bella! How come you only have four pairs of shoes!?!"

Bella sighed deeply as she could without wincing and shared a commiserated look with her father as he turned and walked down the stairs to the living room. "Alice, I'd rather have a shower now than a lecture on the demons of having a small wardrobe!"

"Fine, but we're going to change your priorities while I'm staying here," Alice shook her head as she helped Bella undress and maneuver into the shower. "It's an affront to my sensibilities to allow anyone living with such limited clothing options!"

"Yes, I'm sure it is", Bella snickered as the hot water poured over her. "I like having few options, makes getting dressed easier, quicker."

"Ohhh euuughh, you sound like a man!" Alice complained as she shampooed Bella's hair. "You can lay out your outfit the night before! And can we talk accessories? You don't even have hair clips!"

"My head hurts when I wear them!" Bella replied as she steadied herself in the shower.

"We'll get you non-head-hurting kinds!" Alice rolled her eyes as she rinsed Bella's hair.

"Whatever, Alice, just a few more outfits and that's it, okay? I don't have room for all the **necessary ** clothes you think I need!" Bella gripped the safety bar Charlie installed that day for her to hold onto while in the shower.

"Okay, I understand, a few outfits!" Alice perked up happily. "I'll get you things you can interchange so it looks like you have a dozen outfits!"

"Ohhhh geeez, Alice, just hurry this up", Bella groaned at the idea of what Alice considered a "dozen outfits".

That night, Bella slept in her own bed for the first time in over two weeks. She sighed happily as she listened for any sound of Edward. He didn't say he was going to resume his nightly sleep sessions with her when he left her early in the afternoon after having a long talk with her dad out in the back yard. She wanted to know what Charlie had said to him about the entire Arizona fiasco.

"Bella, he's not coming tonight or any other night for awhile," Alice whispered quietly to her as she fluffed pillows behind Bella's head. "He wants to make sure you rest and sleep well."

"I've always slept better when he was here," Bella whined. "It's what Charlie said to him, isn't it? It's why he's not here now."

"Yes and no," Alice walked over to a large pillow on the floor and put it under Bella's broken leg. "He's just respecting Charlie's wishes. Give it this week, Bella. That's not so much to ask for your Father, is it?"

"No", Bella replied petulantly. "But a whole week? Alone?"

"What am I chopped liver?" Alice mockingly glared, hands on hips. "I'm good enough to bathe you and dress you but not good enough to stay the night? Really Bella, I'm quite upset!"

Bella smiled and chuckled. "Alice, Edward normally strips naked and holds me in his arms and touches me.....uhem if you know what I mean. But if you feel you could take his place or do it better, then by all..." a large smooshy pillow hit Bella right in the face.

"You're so evil, Bella!" Alice shuddered. "I see enough in my head as it is without your sick little fantasies in there, too!"

Bella could only laugh and wipe the tears away from her eyes. She enjoyed teasing Alice and she only hoped Edward wouldn't hear how she made Alice upset! He wouldn't think twice of making **that** come true!

"Go to sleep! We have school tomorrow, you know!" Alice reminded Bella as she laid on the air mattress by the closet. "And we have to get up earlier than usual because of your injuries."

_**One Week Before Prom**_

"Well Bella, your ribs seem to be mending really well, "Carlisle smiled at Bella in his office at home. "And you've stopped having head aches, which is good. But I'm sorry to say that you still need to wear a cast."

Bella sighed and looked down at the heavy fiberglass cast on her right leg. "It's just so heavy and bulky. Makes it hard to go up and down the stairs all the time."

"Yes, well, I can make a thinner cast and you can wear a black leg wrap over it, "the vampire doctor mused. "What say you, Edward? Think Bella can handle a lighter cast?"

"I'm not sure Dad", Edward looked over at Bella. "She still has this tendency to want to defy gravity at the wrong times."

Bella glared at her boyfriend. "I didn't trip over the concrete parking barrier, I was pushed when you and Emmett were behaving like two idiots!"

Edward looked over at his father and smiled. "Bella has memory lapses, isn't that a sign of trauma?"

"Memory lapses?!" Bella screeched and turned in her chair to face Edward. "You lying rotten vampire! I hope you have some bandages handy Carlisle because Edward is going to need them!"

Carlisle chuckled and smiled over the antics of the two in front of him. It never ceases to amaze him how quickly Bella accepted Edward and his family as....normal. He wished that she didn't go through the painful attack by one of their kind last month, but it didn't seem to damage Bella's innate joy and happiness.

"Edward, stop teasing her and help me get her onto the table so I redo the cast", he ordered as he stood up to go get the supplies needed for a new cast.

"How's the hand?" Edward asked as he carried Bella down the hall to Carlisle's small medical room. "I see you rub it every once in awhile."

Bella looked down at the reddish crescent scar and shivered. "Sometimes it twinges and sometimes I swear, it's cold. Weird."

"Well, I'm sure it's fine, "Edward kissed the top of her head and set her down on the table. "Right, Dad?"

Carlisle took Bella's hand in his and looked at the healing scar. "If you feel anything out of the ordinary, Bella, please let me know. Vampires are used to injecting venom into people, not sucking it out."

"Okay, Carlisle", Bella smiled softly and then looked away quickly at the mini cast saw on the instrument table. "I'm not going to look, ok? Ugh, I'm sorry, this is just....ugh."

Edward looked at Bella in concern and realized the cause of her distress. "Here, just focus on me, Bella." he took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. "I think we can tune out whatever Carlisle is doing, don't you?"

"Ugh, the vibrations...OW OW OW!" Bella jerked in pain and Edward held her close to him as Carlisle quickly finished removing the cast.

"Sorry about that Bella, seems that whomever wrapped the cast didn't do a good job. I promise I will do a **much** better one", Carlisle smiled reassuringly.

"Hey Bella, I have some vegetable ravioli keeping warm in the oven for you, "Esme came into the room with a smile. "You must be hungry."

Bella looked away from Edwards face and smiled happily at Esme. "Thank you, that sounds delicious!"

"Bella, this may hurt for a few minutes," Carlisle warned as he started to put cast wraps around Bella's leg. "Don't move."

Esme held one of Bella's hands as Edward just held her close and stroked her back.

Within minutes the new cast was on and quickly drying. It was much lighter than the first one and only less than half an inch thick. Edward helped Carlisle fit the black plastic cast wrap while they waited for the cast to dry.

"Alice has something for you to wear," Esme whispered into Bella's ear. "She said you will need it soon."

"What is it and why?" Bella whispered back, forgetting that whispering in a house of vampires doesn't mean privacy.

"Let Alice tell you", Esme smiled and walked out of the room. She stopped at the door, "After you've finished eating, of course."

Edward held Bella as the black casing was fitted and buckled around Bella's leg. Afterwards, she stood up and cautiously walked around the small room.

"It is much lighter, thank you," she smiled at Carlisle.

"My pleasure, Bella," he responded. "Now, let's see about that ravioli, shall we?"

**The End**


End file.
